Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
relationship is like a complementary product for
each other (Manning, 2006; World Cruise Indus-
try Review, 2013). One of the strengths for a cruise
industry in Malaysia is that the government has
significantly invested in the development of ports
and cruise infrastructures for embarkations and
disembarkations in the. According to Kevin Leong
(2013), general manager for Asian Cruise Associa-
tion (ACA), developments on this area have sig-
nificantly attracted more and more cruise liners to
venture into a particular country or region. For
instance, there are a total of six main ports that are
strategically and adequately located in Malaysia
for cruise's stopover which including Port Klang,
Penang, Malacca, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, and
Langkawi (ETP, 2012). Indeed, Malaysian gov-
ernment also eventually increased the cruise ship
capacity of Port Klang in order to cater to larger
ships and more passengers as part of the Entry
Points Project (EPP) six which focusing in cruise
tourism (The Star, 2013b; ETP, 2012).
the cruise facilities and cruise service standards but
also strengthen the positive impression and percep-
tion towards Malaysia's cruise industry.
3.2
Weaknesses
3.2.1
Market structure of cruise industry—
oligopoly
The seven major cruise operators who dominated
the whole cruise industry now are owned by only
three corporations who overall controlled nearly
80 percent of the whole cruise market (Wood,
2004; Lekakou, Pallis & Vaggelas, 2009). Carnival
Cruise Lines, Costa Cruises, Holland America,
Aida Cruises, Cunard Line, Ocean Village, P&O
Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises
and Princess Cruises are all owned by Carnival
Corporation (World's Leading Cruise Lines, 2014);
Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur, Azamara Cruises,
Croisieres de France (CDF) and Royal Caribbean
International are owned by Royal Caribbean (Royal
Caribbean International, 2014); while Star Cruises
Group of Malaysia also owns NCL America, Nor-
wegian Cruise Line, Orient Lines as well as Star
Cruises (Star Cruises, 2014; NCL, 2014).
The barrier of new entry into this cruise busi-
ness market is high as it is dominated just by these
three conglomerates. Besides, the products and
services provided by the cruise liners in this market
would be very homogenous as the competition is
not high. The development of the cruise industry
either in Malaysia or internationally might be con-
strained by having a very homogenous products
and services in the market.
3.1.2
Strategic location of malaysia
Location of Malaysia is strategically considered
as a cruise destination. Indeed, this is due to the
reason that South-East Asia is having more than
25,000 islands within the region that provide a
natural strength for this area in the international
cruise industry. Eventually, Malaysia will be able
to gain advantage from this region's growing cruise
market as it is geographically located in South-East
Asia (The Star, 2013a). Furthermore, this area also
allowed the industry to access to markets that com-
prised of 60-70 percent of the world population.
3.1.3
Award winning ports and cruise operators
Reorganization towards the cruise industry in
Malaysia is gained through the world class awards
that received by both the cruise terminals and local
cruise operators such as Star Cruises. For instance,
Star Cruises Terminal in Port Klang and Jetty Ter-
minal in Langkawi Island Malaysia were proudly
awarded the Statements of Compliance under
the International Ship and Port Facility Security
(ISPS) Code 2002 (Genting Group, 2014; UC
Cruises, 2014). This code is primarily a security
threat preventive framework which involves several
parties including cooperation and contracting gov-
ernments, government agencies, local authorities
and members of the shipping and port fraternity.
In terms of the local cruise operators, Star
Cruises is also well recognized for its world class
service standards of hospitality not only in the
cruise industry of Malaysia but the whole Asia
Pacific (UC Cruises, 2014). These international
recognized awards would then play a significant
role and act as the strength of the cruise industry
in Malaysia as it is not only a testimonial towards
3.2.2
Gambling versus Muslim
In an Islamic country like Malaysia, gambling is an
illegal activity for the Muslims and even strict rules
and regulations are imposed to the very limited
number of licensed casinos that available in the
country. However, Clarke (1999) found that casi-
nos or gambling facilities are not only an on-board
activity that enlightens the cruise passengers but
it also plays a significant role in the cruise indus-
try as a major profit contributor in their annual
profit and loss reports. Furthermore, it is also not
uncommon for cruise operators to set up a casino
or provide gambling facilities on board as casino
that is operating offshore or on international sea is
not regulated by legislation or government (Ng &
Kwortnik, 2007).
Hence, it can be seen as a weakness for the
cruise industry in Malaysia when the cruise liners
start to concern and focus on the gambling activi-
ties and forgetting the importance of the Mus-
lims market in Malaysia, as they are the biggest
population in Malaysia yet are illegal to gamble
according to the law.
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